Random Relations 1: To Protect Without Killing
by LeonaWriter
Summary: The first in a series of crossovers only thought up due to random connections between the series'. Ever wondered why Hakuba fanart is often either blue-eyed or gold-eyed? Easy. He's both. Rated for there almost having been a character death. But not.


Random Relativities

Relation Number One – Magic Kaito and Rurouni Kenshin

To Protect Without Killing

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It had all started at a heist.

Kaito had never expected it to get so out of control. He was always the one in control when it came to his heists, always having a backup plan all the way to plan D and beyond, if necessary, able to think something up on the spot whether or not he should have had the time.

He didn't know how it had happened. One minute, he'd had everything in control. The next, the snipers had paid a visit and all hell had gone loose. Someone had started to scream, and it hadn't been one of the Task Force – he knew all of their voices, he had impersonated each one at least once – and it hadn't been anyone else he had known, but it shouldn't matter and it hadn't mattered. He had moved instinctively in their direction, instead of getting out of there to lead the snipers away.

After that, everything had somehow become blurred, mixed up, jumbled in his head. There were no gaps in his memory, but what he could remember was so confusing that he might as well have been hit on the head. He felt as though he had been hit on the head.

It was too dark, he couldn't think too clearly, and he was dressed entirely in white in a place where he didn't have the advantage of home ground. In other words, live prey.

A light shone into the alleyway he had secreted himself into, and it was his shadow that gave him away instead of the luminescent properties of the Kid's costume, which he had not had the chance to change out of since this had gone out of control. A figure in dark clothes turned the corner, torch in hand.

Kaito saw them smile, a not very nice smile, and kept his Poker Face on, even when the man shouted out for his colleagues to bring them to him. He brought out his card gun, but he couldn't see what it would be able to do – he had somehow lost his luck at the beginning of the night, and had backed himself into a back alley he couldn't easily escape from.

The guns were being raised, were being pointed right at him, were being cocked and were ready to –

Do absolutely nothing to him.

Almost too quickly for his eye to follow, each and every single one of their bullets were deflected harmlessly away from him, a steely-tea-brown blur flickering in his vision. For a moment it solidified, leaving him confounded with what he saw, but then it flickered yet again and this time took out the men who had followed him into the alley, each one falling to the ground within seconds silently.

Moments later, one person who he only assumed to be Hakuba Saguru because that was who he looked like – Kaito knew better than any that a good disguise could fool anyone, even those who knew the person the most – came back into his visual spectrum.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking, you imbecile?!"

Dumbfounded by the difference in the detective's character – and the eyes, oh kami, the _eyes_, they were usually blue like his, so why were they _gold_? – he could barely remember to keep his voice in Kid's dulcet tones.

"I can't honestly say that I- "

"You know damn well that whatever happens, you leave the injured to the police and the paramedics – those who know what the damn hell they're doing, Kid!"

This time Kaito couldn't think of anything to say. He did know all of that. He did. He just hadn't thought. Besides, his mind was too busy looking at the blade in the detective's hands to think about anything rational right then.

The blonde paced purposefully towards him, hand still clutching the live blade as though it were a lifeline of some sort, and Kaito attempted to step back only to find that he was practically against the wall already. But instead of running him through – like he might have done if Hakuba had been an imposter – the golden eyed version of his rival only clamped one deceptively strong hand down on his right shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes, monocle and all.

"Don't you ever, ever do something like that again, Kuroba," the detective said, softer. As Kaito watched, the gold faded steadily back into the softer blue that the magician thief had for so long thought so cold and cool and now seemed that much warmer. As it did so, Hakuba collapsed limply against him, not unconscious but close to it.

With a long-suffering sigh, the Kaitou Kid picked up his rival and carried him back to somewhere a little closer to where the heist had been, all the while attempting to calm his own rapidly beating heart from the adrenaline rush that usually came with close brushes with death.

It wasn't too long before the blonde woke up once more, but this time it was Question Time, and the Kaitou was expecting some Answers.

The first thing he had asked, of course, had been 'what was that?'. His answer hadn't been what he had expected, though of course he hadn't exactly known what to expect to begin with .

"Kamiya Kasshin Ryū," the detective had said. "Though a lot more powerful, more agile, due to my training in certain other areas. . ."

Kamiya Kasshin. Yeah, right. Kaito had seen the posters for that dojo scattered around the area, and that kind of school didn't teach someone how to flicker like that.

"Look, Kuroba..." Hakuba had started again, but Kaito cut across him in Kid's voice.

"Sorry, Tantei-san. I would feel sorry for the boy, having you always on his tail, if I wasn't sure that he was so honoured to be thought of in the same sentence as me."

Hakuba snorted and got steadily to his feet, checking the blade that he still had in his hand. Kaito hadn't wanted to take it out of the detective's fist, and had had to be extremely careful in where to put the arm that was holding the live steel.

"Kuroba, you do know that that doesn't work anymore, don't you?"

As Hakuba turned his head slightly to see his reaction, Kaito froze. The gold was back. Or at least, flecks of it.

Seeing his reaction, Hakuba turned away, hiding his face in what seemed like shame, fear and disgust.

"...Ki. That's what it is, Kid. Ki. Unique to each and every individual, an extra sense available to all true swordsmen. . . and handed down to me by genetics, by my grandfather, who had it from his grandfather. . ."

Ah. Well, that would explain a lot. Though if Kaito himself didn't have his own particular brand of 'magic', then he likely would never have believed the other. Straightening, he cast his gaze onto the detective, still leaning against something – though this time something other than the Kaitou himself – to stand.

". . . If you have this ki, then is there a good reason for you to have not arrested me already?"

He was almost afraid of the answer, even more so when Hakuba let out an almost hysteric short laugh.

"You have to be joking, right? You might have noticed, but I don't usually move like that. My muscles were forced to speeds they don't usually attain. I ache _all over_." Kaito winced in sympathy. He knew what that was like, but not exactly. It had to be like hell. "What's more," Hakuba continued, "is that I only just properly tapped into all of this. My head hurts," he finished lamely, sounding almost like a child ten years younger than he actually was.

Kaito stared at him, without caring that it was obvious that he was doing so. Hakuba was usually just so. . . normal. Unlike him, who had a secret to keep and unlike Koizumi, who was a witch, unlike Kudo, who practically _was_ a secret in and of himself. And now here was Hakuba, telling him so much more about his family background and life and secrets than he had ever heard either of them say before.

Probably just because he was so tired. Probably just because they had just had the scare of their lives. Possibly because Hakuba had just saved Kaito's life and freaked both of them out at the same time.

The detective's parents were both away, having left him in the care of his – nanny? Au pair? What? – while they were away. Kaito's mother knew enough about secrets to know how to handle one more.

Heaving a sigh that basically translated to 'I _know_ I'm going to regret this later', Kaito stepped back into the shadows, switched clothes quickly enough to go back not more than half a minute later with Kid outfit and gadgets stuck in various places on his person, but not quickly enough to miss the look of abject, downcast fright in Hakuba's eyes that scared him more than he had been even back in that dead-ended alley.

Hakuba wasn't the one who was supposed to be scared, here.

Because, about half an hour later, Kaito was the one who had taken the detective-come-swordsman into his own home and dumped him gracefully into the guest bedroom to recover, knowing that his own Question Time was only getting nearer, and that the guy who'd saved his life deserved some Answers. Even if he didn't particularly want to give them.

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AN: Yes, it ends here. If you want to continue, feel free.

Random Relativities is just a series of non-related crossovers (you could have them be related if you want, your choice) that I just have to write down somewhere before they disappear. The crossover can be between anything and anything so long as there's something that links the two together – usually a relation, as mentioned in the title.

This one was brought to you by the fandom being confused as to whether Hakuba Saguru has blue eyes, or gold? I decided rather democratically that he has both. XD The guys who went down didn't die, by the way. He was using Kenshin's Sakabatou, you know. How he got it? You figure it out, huh.

As I have too much on my hands as it is (TVD2, WitB, Kyouson, HP+tCS, etc, etc anyone?) these are open to anyone who wants to give them a go. The only conditions are these:

1 – That you let me know. I want to be able to read the continuation of my work;

And 2 – That there be only het pairings, usually canon. That's how I'd write my stories, and I don't read anything other than het, so I'd again like to say that I'd like to be able to read the continuations of my stories.

That's all, folks.


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